Argentina

Drug Overview

Argentina's size and wealth makes it a welcome market for illegal drug consumption and trafficking. In recent years, Argentine drug policy debate has moved away from the more prohibitive U.S-style War-on-Drugs strategies, which served as the model for Argentina's earlier drug laws of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

However, since the 1990s there have been a growing number of voices arguing for more liberal enforcement and regulation policies. This is in the face of growing problems associated with drug use, violence, and corruption. The degree of these problems have been made worse by the increased availability of low-cost, and highly addictive cocaine in the form of paco, and methamphetamines as well as the continued use of marijuana and opiates.

This more liberal approach was emphasized at the 51st Session of the United Nations (UN) Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) held in Vienna in March 2008. Here Argentina's Minister of Justice, Human Rights and Security, Anibal Fernandez, made clear the current Argentine administration's desire for more flexible regulatory policies away from the prohibitionist approaches of earlier eras and international understandings, particularly those associated with the U.S. War on Drugs. This position is in line with Chamber of Deputies Representative Eduardo Garcia's 2003 drive to decriminalize the possession and personal consumption of both hard and soft drugs as well as ending forced drug treatment, thus modifying Argentine drug law 23.737. These policy changes move Argentina into line with Colombia, Peru, and Uruguay, which have decriminalized drug use and possession.

Arguments for this policy review have been backed by Argentine statistics showing that most people arrested for possession had not been arrested before and that fully 87 percent of those arrested were apprehended for amounts of less than five grams. The drive toward liberalization also received backing from the August 2009 First Latin American Conference on Drug Policies held in Buenos Aires. Here it was concluded that the time and sums spent repressing drug use and trafficking have not worked and new methods are needed that are geared to more humanitarian outcomes. One example given of this failure is the fact that the billions of dollars spent to curtail production in Latin America, such as the policy in Colombia to eliminate coca production, had the opposite effect from 2006 to 2007, leading to a production increase of 27 percent.

Other Contexts

In light of recent policy transformations, Argentina still remains a member of the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission, (CICAD) an arm of the Organization of American States that operates a number of anti-drug projects, including campaigns to suppress illegal drug production, enhanced controls for those chemicals necessary for illegal drug manufacture, database monitoring of trafficking, and the promotion of other outreach programs.

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